I realize that in my Photo a Day post, I took a picture of the book Queen Victoria for the day titled, 'what I'm reading'. I hadn't started it yet, but I used it for that day anyway, excited to begin.
It's four days later and as of this morning, I've yet to pick it up. I don't want to say I've given up on it since I never actually gave it a chance in the first place, but....
I ended up fishing out The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen this evening when I started to get a little bit homesick. I don't know what it was about this book that made me grab it, but I did.
Ok, that's a complete lie. I know exactly why I grabbed it. The Truth About Forever is a book I've already read three times. The first time I picked it up, I was in middle school and I found a copy with a tattered plastic protective cover around it in the Keller Public Library's Young Adult section. I know every character and their subsequent personality traits by heart: brooding, handsome Wes; chubby Bert who believes in the second Apocolypse as if it's his only religion; quiet, closed-away Macy. Every time I read a scene, I can tell you exactly what's going to happen, the way Macy feels, the way Wes looks at her, and if Monica sighs or scoffs.
I remember the second or third time I read this book, I don't remember which it was, but it was the day before one of my first days of school. I was really nervous, so I put this book in my backpack. That night, I slept like a baby. That morning, I got up and I was still a little nervous, but I was ready. I just kept thinking about my copy of the book tucked away in my backpack and I felt totally fine.
What is the point of all this rambling, you may be asking yourself? My point is this: there are just those books that feel like home. Like I said, tonight I started to feel a little homesick and so I reached for TTAF and after reading the first four chapters, I already feel better. I felt better because I had Macy and Wes and Monica and Wish Catering and Wally from Raleigh and the grubby beach house and all that.
I've got a lot of favorite books, and this is one of them, without a doubt. I don't care how cheesy or predictable it is, and I honestly don't care that the main character is in high school (because isn't that when all of us go through a million little crisises, anyway?)
BOOKS=HOME.
And that's all I have to say about that.
